In the early 1960s, Babatunde Olatunji was the face of African
music in America. Though the real Afropop of the time was longer on
melodies of wisdom than drums of passion, the Nigerian
political-science student quickly found that to teach Americans
anything at all about Africa, he'd best keep it simple. So his six
albums for Columbia, the first and last of which resurface here with
unnecessarily jazzy bonus tracks, stick to theatrical percussion
compositions overlaid with catchy choral singing. Less authentic than
he pretended, they're plenty musical on their own terms, which 50
years later is what counts.